1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink supply devices in which a controller is configured to determine a type of an ink cartridge based on a detector detecting a portion of the ink cartridge configured to be mounted to a cartridge mounting portion.
2. Description of Related Art
In a known ink jet printing apparatus such as an apparatus described in JP-A-2005-288866, an ink cartridge is positioned in the apparatus at a position outside a carriage on which the printhead is mounted, and the ink cartridge and the printhead are in fluid combination via a tube. The ink cartridge is configured to be removably mounted to a cartridge mounting portion by being inserted thereinto in a horizontal direction from the front side of the apparatus. When the ink cartridge is mounted to the cartridge mounting portion, an ink supply path from the ink cartridge to the printhead via the cartridge mounting portion is formed. Ink is supplied from the ink cartridge to the printhead through this ink supply path.
In another known ink-jet printing apparatus such as an apparatus described in JP-2008-246999, detectors such as optical detectors are provided in the cartridge mounting portion for determining the type of the ink cartridge, e.g., determining the color or initial amount of ink stored in the ink cartridge. The ink cartridge has detectable portions positioned corresponding to the detectors, for determining the color or initial amount of ink. When the ink cartridge is inserted into the cartridge mounting portion and the detectable portions are detected by the detectors, signals are output from the detectors, and a controller of the apparatus executes a process of determining the type of the ink cartridge based on the signals. In this apparatus, the type of the ink cartridge is determined among two types.
When a color image is recorded by an ink-jet printing apparatus, inks in a plurality of colors such as cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are used. The inks in the respective colors are stored in independent ink cartridges. The ink cartridges which store the inks in the respective colors are mounted to corresponding cartridge mounting portions. It is undesirable for the ink cartridges storing different color inks to be mixed up and to be used in wrong cartridge mounting portions. Moreover, there exist ink cartridges having different initial amount of ink stored therein and ink cartridges storing inks having different ink components such as dye or pigment. As such, the ink cartridges have a variety of the types. Therefore, in an ink-jet printing apparatus, the type of the ink cartridge needs to be determined among not only two types but also further variety of types.
However, the number of detectors may be increased for determining the type of an ink cartridge among a variety of types, which would lead to cost increase.
Moreover, when the ink cartridge is inserted into the cartridge mounting portion, a user may begins to insert the ink cartridge into the cartridge mounting portion and partially removes the ink cartridge before finally fully inserting the ink cartridge into the cartridge mounting portion. Even if the ink cartridge moves back and force in the cartridge mounting portion like this, it is desirable to determine the type of the ink cartridge correctly.